Syria (President) Blames (Foreign) 'Conspiracy' For Protests

[Turborama]

Source: Sky News

Syria's president has blamed a foreign conspiracy for two weeks of unprecedented protests against the rule of his Baath party.

Bashar al Assad described the violent unrest - which has left dozens of people dead - as a "test for the nation".

Assad had been widely expected to withdraw an emergency law - which granted sweeping powers to the security forces - as a concession to the protesters.

The law has been in place since Bashar al Assad's Baath Party took power in 1963.

More to follow...

Read more: http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Syria-Protests-President-Assad-Blames-Foreign-Conspiracy/Article/201103415962839?lpos=World_News_First_Home_Article_Teaser_Region_0&lid=ARTICLE_15962839_Syria_Protests:_President_Assad_Blames_Foreign_Conspi

[brooklynite]

1. Okay - Mubarak and Gadaffi tried this line...

Ask them how it worked out.

[No Elephants]

2. Syria does not have Egypt's influence or Libya's oil.

[pampango]

3. I think Gadaffi has forgotten to include Israel in the "others" who are responsible.

To the West he he says that it is Al Queda's fault. To the Muslim world he says that it is the imperialist West at fault. But I don't remember him playing the "Israel card". Perhaps I am just not remembering things correctly.

[cali]

10. Syria has some serious experience. In 1982 they killed 80,000

[karynnj]

4. This really is bad news - it does not seem like he intends any real

reforms.

[pampango]

5. Indeed. WaPo: "Syria’s Assad offers nothing, blames protests on ‘big conspiracy’"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/syrias-assad-offers-nothing-blames-protests-on-big-conspiracy/2011/03/30/AFlLmW2B_story.html

"Assad, in a nationally televised speech, did not offer any of the concessions hoped for by protesters, such as abolishing a 48-year-old emergency law that suffocates civil liberties and allows the political system to be monopolized by the ruling Baath Party.

Instead, he portrayed himself as a modernizer who has long been engaged in economic and political reforms--and who eventually will get around to altering the hated emergency rules as well. “Some people will come up this afternoon and say ‘this is not enough’,” Assad said, chuckling into his microphone as he anticipated what satellite television commentators would opine. “But I want to tell them, we are not going to destroy our nation.”

The long-awaited speech, coming after 12 days of anti-government riots, was a major disappointment for the mostly youthful demonstrators who have added Syria to a growing list of Arab countries facing unprecedented demands for democracy, civil rights and clean government.

“What he said today, it will not stop the movement,” said Haitham al-Maleh, a veteran human rights activist contacted by telephone. “There is a tsunami going across the Arab world, and it will cover Syria, too.”

[karynnj]

6. Yesterday's article by David Ignatius there held out some hope

- that obviously has not been met.

Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad is attempting a new survival tactic in this Arab Spring — organizing what looks like a coup against his own government. Over the next 48 hours, it should become clear whether he has the political muscle and dexterity to pull off this unusual maneuver.

Assad dismissed his cabinet ministers Tuesday, and his backers encouraged massive public demonstrations of support in Damascus, Aleppo and other Syrian cities. Photographs showed huge crowds; a Syrian source claimed that 2 million Assad supporters had assembled in Damascus and 1 million in Aleppo, but it’s impossible to confirm these numbers.

In their effort to turn the tables on protesters, the regime used Facebook as one of its tools to summon demonstrators. The social networking site was officially approved in Syria less than two month ago.

Assad has deliberately avoided making any public pronouncements so far, leaving those mostly to his pro-reform adviser Bouthaina Shaaban. She said last week that Assad would repeal Syria’s emergency law, end the Baath Party’s monopoly on power, reform the judiciary and combat the corruption that is endemic in Syria.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/post/2011/03/04/AFMavKxB_blog.html

[David__77]

8. What kind of "reforms?"

Syria has "reformed" plenty, with privatizations and opening to foreign direct investment. Or do you mean plural elections and all that?

[karynnj]

9. What people were expecting was ending the emergency law - in effect for decades,

giving parties other than the Baath party rights etc.

(I agree with your quotes around reformed.)

[Baclava]

7. Syria knows we'd never touch them, Iran would come running to help them and that means a REAL war

Besides, we can't afford to fight the 3 wars we're in now, they're safe to say and do whatever they want and they know it.